Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene says his men are building momentum after routing India at the Gabba to move off the bottom of the ladder in the Commonwealth Bank Series.
Backing up from an eight-wicket thrashing of Australia on Friday, the slow-starting Sri Lankans' 51-run win evened the score with India following a loss and a tie in their two previous encounters.
There were mature batting performances sprinkled through the card, including half centuries to Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lahiru Thirimanne, and a vital 49 off 37 from Angelo Mathews.
Victorious captain Jayawardene, who contributed 45 in a 95-run opening stand with Dilshan, was disappointed in the three dropped catches that ultimately cost the bonus point, but the overriding emotion was satisfaction at claiming a win thorough an all-round performance.
"We played a pretty good game, but yes we made a few mistakes; the dropped catches and I thought we should have been able to push for the bonus point," he said.
"But the Indian batting line-up is very strong so when you give opportunities they do bat well."
"We were put under pressure in certain situations but I thought our boys bowled really well, in good areas."
"We picked up wickets with the new ball again, which was great. It was pretty much a complete game apart from those dropped catches."
With four points for the win, the Sri Lankans are in second place with 11 points, three short of Australia but one clear of the Indians.
Riding a two-win streak, Jayawardene was quietly confident in his side's ability to hold their top-two seeding across two more games with Australia and one with India.
"It was a crucial game for us. We haven't had a good start to the tournament, we had to come back strongly, which we've done," he said.
"We've played some consistent cricket, even though we lost those first few games."
"Now we're trying to finish games off pretty well, executing a lot of the game plans and hopefully with this momentum we can win a few more and try to get ourselves into the finals."
